after treatment with Metabolic Enhancement for Neuro Degeneration (MEND), a programmatic and personalized therapy protocol.
This means that utilizing a specialized treatment for individuals with early Alzheimer's may show promise by reducing the negative effects of cognitive decline.
Researchers described results from the small trial, which used quantitative MRI and neuropsychological testing of participants before and after treatment, in the study published online in Aging.
“ The magnitude of the improvement is unprecedented,” researchers wrote, “providing additional objective evidence that this programmatic approach to cognitive decline is highly effective.”
Before starting the program, the 10 participants had well-defined mild cognitive impairment, subjective cognitive impairment, or had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Their subsequent treatment consisted of a complex, 36-point therapeutic personalized program that included comprehensive changes in diet, brain stimulation, exercise, optimization of sleep, specific pharmaceuticals and vitamins, and multiple additional steps that affect brain chemistry.
Researcher Dale Bredesen, MD, a professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and at the Easton Laboratories for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at UCLA, Los Angeles, believes the protocol’s broader-based approach is key to its apparent success in reversing cognitive decline.
“Imagine having a roof with 36 holes in it, and your drug patched one hole very well — the drug may have worked, a single ‘hole’ may have been fixed, but you still have 35 other leaks, and so the underlying process may not be affected much," Dr. Bredesen said. "We think addressing multiple targets within the molecular network may be additive, or even synergistic, and that such a combinatorial approach may enhance drug candidate performance as well.”
A 66-year-old man whose neuropsychological testing was compatible with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment. After 10 months on the MEND protocol, his hippocampal volume increased from the 17 th percentile for his age to the 75 th percentile, with an associated absolute increase in volume of nearly 12%.
A 69-year-old entrepreneur with 11 years of progressive memory loss. After 22 months on the protocol, he showed marked improvements in all categories of neuropsychological testing, with long-term recall increasing from the 3 rd to 84 th percentile.
A 49-year-old woman in the early stages of cognitive decline who, after 9 months on the protocol, no longer showed evidence on quantitative neuropsychological testing of cognitive decline.
Plans for larger studies are under way.
“Even though we see the far-reaching implications of this success,” Dr. Bredesen said, “we also realize that this is a very small study that needs to be replicated in larger numbers at various sites.”